It’s an easy question to answer. So I’ll take my time. Have you ever considered what it means to be comfortable? I think the premise has more to do with the Theory of Relativity than anything; as in, it is completely relative to the gravity of your present situation. If you are in a grave situation, literally about to enter the grave of your life, then little else matters. If, generally speaking, you don’t believe it should be your time to enter in, then everything that reaffirms your belief in having a continuing future is of utmost importance. For instance: if you are facing dying of thirst int he desert or chop off you arm. A very great discomfort will matter very little to the person set upon having a future. Sadly there are those who would choose to die out there than be uncomfortable with the choices needed to be made.

Often times I find myself making choices based upon how I feel (read that as a focus on my comfort) about why I don’t really want to do something and not considering the future benefit of such actions. I believe we all should strive to have the best future we can imagine. For some of us the best future is a groundhog day. I do mean a Bill Murry experience! It is far to easy to be passive, lethargic, uninterested, a procrastinator or lazy when you have a standard of living that only makes you uncomfortable when the most trivial of aspects ruin your day. Let’s say something like you go out to leave for work and you have a flat tire.

You say, “that’s not a most trivial aspect”. I would argue? Let us consider that having a tire is quite a wealthy proposition considering the rest of the world, quite possibly even here in America. Depending upon to what it is attached, quite possibly you have less to complain about than being late to work one day of the few days you work in a week. This flat tire is not only easily fixed but will be temporary and probably never plague you again. The median American’s standard of living is far beyond the rest of the world including first world countries as in Europe. The things and opportunities you have available any time of any day is unparalleled anywhere else in the world. It is extremely easy to be industrious in this country but it is far easier to be comfortable.

Most immigrants recognize this when they get here and become industrious because of the discomfort they’ve know not having opportunity to be industrious. They excel, some to the point where they too lose their memories and make decisions to be comfortable.

You’ve heard this saying before no doubt, ” good enough is the enemy of great”. There is some wisdom in this though fallible, greatness is needed and should be applauded, but I don’t really need a great tire that will never go flat when it is such a small and insignificant part of my endeavor to have a flat. It only needs to be good enough, but without someone pursuing great tires we would not have the one we employ today. Someone at some point pursued greatness in tires at the peril of his comfort! Someone at some point pursued good tires at the peril of his comfort lest we would not have them.

Please remember that a good life or a great life requires some level of discomfort and the world needs you to go an be uncomfortable because all of our futures are dependent upon your theory of relativity in our lives. It’s all relative even though you’re probably not my cousin, I need you to be uncomfortable for me and for yourself.

Go right now and be great to someone you know,

Greg

Something I often discuss with an SBO or a mentee is the analogy of what you do relating to a vehicle. A number of entrepreneurs fail at their businesses not because it’s a bad idea or under capitalized but because the business itself is a bicycle. To paint you the picture more clearly, imagine trying to pay your bills riding around on a bicycle delivering door to door. You can have 50% of every house on every street as a customer (an exceptional market share) and you get a fifty cents for each delivery. Let’s say the package you deliver is the size of the largest iphone box. Got it? Let’s break it down into the business details worth considering.

First we want to look at time. We all only have so much time in each day to allocate to work, although work is a gift we should enjoy, we work to live not live to work. In this example let’s say that you will be working 10 hours each day and six days per week like most successful entrepreneurs. That is 60 hours each week. Let’s propose that a hustler could deliver on average one package per minute riding from house to house on a street throwing the package on the front lawn. It would seem that simple math would indicate that a person could generate $30 per hour at this rate. Sounds pretty good for a starter, roughly $60K per year.

Let’s consider a few more things shall we. And I’m sure this is basic for a lot of you but I am serving two purposes here. Primarily to illustrate my analogy but also to help other see, and to give those who might venture off into business a full consideration. The obvious things we need to add to this is things like, picking up more product when the bike gets empty and the time that will take away from delivering. Does that require something else like a van parked nearby, riding a considerable distance to get more? Fitness level? The bicycle? Weather? Do I need to put it in a plastic bag? Additional costs are lurking in all sorts of places. Most people don’t consider them until they have made the move to get into that business. Once I witnessed a you man about my age at the time loading his truck at the lumber yard with the entire tool package to be a contractor. Brand new, all at once. There is a lot to learn, I hope he made it, I’m guessing not, too much he didn’t know. Like what he could do in a day. He made a jump looking to see how it turned out. Somethings you can’t know until you jump but if you jump make sure the landing won’t kill you and you’ll be fine. You can recover a broken leg but dead is dead! The things associated with our bicycle scenario are more obvious and for a person who only needs to make $40 per year this might be enticing.

What we really need to look at here is where you are going in your bid picture. Are you 12 and looking at 8 more years of school or are you 30 with a family? In times past there were jobs that were intended for young people to get started learning about work and the responsibility of it. Places like the newspaper delivery, car washes, burger joints, movie theaters, coffee shop, etc. Now young people mostly don’t work and young adults are looking toward this type of work as a support mechanism while still living at home with mom and pop. When you were 12 delivering packages on a bicycle for a few hours a week it gave you some jingle in your pocket for a comic book, a soda pop, a piece of candy or arcade game. It was practical for the need of the individual. At 22, you now have expenses; rent, car, utilities and you’re trying to ride that bicycle 40 hours a week and make it work out with a credit card. It works OK until you wear out your bike or credit card and need a new one. These are meant to get you started not keep you moving forward!

One can only ride a bike so far and only be as successful to the extent that one can ride. The flip side is if I bought a car (new or otherwise) I could do more! This, of course is true, but introducing a car to a bicycle gig is like using a hammer to turn on the light every time you go into the bathroom! You can’t possibly overcome the logistical issues to get enough fifty cent pieces to make it work out. The cost of a car warrants something that has more value per transaction.

A lot of people are trying to get more out of their business than which it is capable. Trying to make pickup truck wages from a skateboard not recognizing that more capital investment won’t pay off any better, it just makes making less money easier. I learned this from thinking that being a builder and developing a piece of real estate was the ticket. After my first project as builder and developer I realized that being a builder was a very good living indeed! I applaud those whose passion is building. But what I learned was that there was more value in being the developer than the builder. I received in one deal the value of an entire years work as a builder. Now as a developer I am seeing this play out again.

It’s about learning what a skateboard is and what you can do with it then moving on to a bicycle and leaning what you can do with that and moving on to ………..

Learn and MOVE ON! If your business is not giving you what you want from it maybe it’s time to get a new vehicle?

GO, learn something from someone today,

Greg

My wife and I were discussing the operating parameters of our farm store, in particular the seasonal nature and when to open and close. Her perspective was more along the lines of what she, personally, got from being involved. I on the other hand am always looking to figure out how this thing can give a number of people full time work and how much can it make? Her perspective is go her own way, and all of you married guys out there know she is right! Although my perspective is also go my way, because it is not go her way, it has nothing to do with me per se. Let me explain better.

Going your own way is good to the extent that you aren’t listening to the nay sayers. But things have their own way and one needs to be cognizant of that way, use it to one’s benefit, exploit it to your advantage, recognize that the “way” is it’s character and going against it’s character is wasting time, effort and resources. My bride’s perspective is intended to suit her personal interest which is great, why would you do something that does not suit you personally, everyone should pursue the things that truly satisfy! No doubt! Everyone is in agreement then, suit yourself. Well……let me add a little to that.

Failing is failing. Failing isn’t success, failing isn’t keeping it going, failing isn’t paying your bills. Often times I see people failing in business because they don’t care to consider the needs of the endeavor and prioritize those needs above their personal desires and interests. As an example; your business needs sales, if you don’t like doing sales or spending money on sales or whatever the reason you don’t do sales then the timeline of your business will be short and unsuccessful. Recognizing that your business is a bit like a child and it needs certain things to survive is crucial. Whether you like it or not you must do these certain things or your business and you will certainly fail.

This one factor is the number one reason that people fail in their small business ventures. If you read online you will see that the most quoted reason for small business failure is lack of capitalization. Although this is most often a difficult part of being in business I have never seen it to be the most instrumental. Generally it goes this way, ” if I had more capital to pay myself what I wanted, pay the rent, buy more inventory eventually the sales would grow enough to pay for it all and the back log of monies spent.” It will never happen! If this is your plan it is a very BAD plan, don’t do it. Especially with your own money! You’ve worked to hard to get it to piss it away. Businesses are built on giving them what they need not what you want. We should neglect considering if the business you chose is a skateboard or a jet plane, but that is for another article. I think the next one.

Figure out what it takes to make your business endeavor a real success, do those things regardless of how you feel about it. Your business just like a child when they have been given each and every thing that is needed at the appropriate moment along the way will turn into a proud experience that pays you for the least of your involvement and then you will have the greatest satisfaction! And your business investment will give you whatever you need or want.

I didn’t want to do dishes very night but that is what is needed, otherwise I am behind tomorrow and have more debt to pay to get even for the day. Do what needs doing, do it now, do it for your tomorrow! What seems to be a long time now will be a short time later when you look back and you’ll be glad that you did all of those things and the Future Matt will be happy!

Go and be great to the world of people around, do it now, move

Greg

I was reading some statistics from research done by the Ramsey organization about American millionaires this morning. Presently there are approximately 22 million millionaires in the good ole US of A. Seemingly, the “largest study of millionaires conducted”. Ramsey states that upon surveying 10 thousand participants they found 8 out of 10 of these folks invested in their companies 401(k) plan. Meaning these people had a job at a large corporation and learned how to save. They go on to state that only 31% of these people averaged $100,000 dollars a year over the course of their careers. Meaning if they could have saved every dime they made it would still have taken 10 years, I’m hoping you see it takes time. On average, the study states, that it has taken them 28 years to get there. They state that most of their participants got there at the age of 49. A side note: most of these participants did not receive it as an inheritance or any inheritance they did receive was insignificant to their financial journey.

About this study, I’m questioning their demographic pool and how they found them. Let’s say the information we have to glean from is reported income or assets. (government type reports) Then my data sets would connect me with people from the Fortune 500 group, mostly (their report reads this way to me, ie: 401(k) plan). To break that down there are 300 US cities with over 100,000 people or an average of 33 people in each city. Operative word “city”, why city? Again 401(k) plan. I would venture to say there are no companies in my town that employ people and offer that kind investment opportunity. There are 364 people with at least 75 businesses, a lot higher percentage than the study. Not to make this a diatribe about this study, it does go to illustrate the point of my topic today though.

These people are not rich! They are wealthy. They learned how to “NOT” spend!!! (emphasis added) and also to save or invest. They live reserved lives of contentedness. To say it another way, they do not live lavish lives of cars, boats, jewelry and fine dining like in the movies. Perhaps you are like me, a business man, and your wealth comes from years of hard work and investing to where you own assets that have appreciated and don’t show up on some millionaire’s statistical information. I’d like to see a survey of these folks to know what it looks like but just like you, I’m not giving them any of that data if I can help it. Nun ya bizness.

Back to my point. Being rich is momentary and short sighted. It only lasts as long as the money and we all know the looser you are with it the faster it goes not to mention the government is wrecking it faster that we can get it! These people like me spent time to get time and it took a lot of time to get there. There is no speedy road to wealth and of a certainty there is no way get rich quick, unless you are a guy like Bankman-Fried and just like him it won’t last long. Interesting irony his name is Bankman.

“The American dream is still alive” Ramsey states, to which I whole heartedly agree! The dream of living a life full of opportunity to be wealthy is right in front of us all. To be free, pursue our dreams through hard work, to have our hard work bear fruit, to keep and use that fruit in a manner that suits us and to share it with those we care about! My encouragement for you today is learn to be wealthy, forget about being rich. Life is rich when you can enjoy each and every special thing about your day. Children growing, babies crying, customers happy to know that you enjoy coming to work to greet them, being needed by your loved ones and your community, a nice hot cup of tea or coffee, dry feet, one minute of silence……. Surely, discipline yourself to become wealthy but understand that Hollywood’s definition of rich is not the ticket to your movie!

Go and be good to someone else,

Greg

As an SBO the one thing of which I am keenly aware is that being successful in business takes a serious level of commitment! Without commitment, a deep rooted sentiment of redeeming quality and value with transcendent intentions, a business idea is nothing more than a waste of time. There are many obstacles, distractions, previous obligations, detractors, haters and enemies to be met along this journey to have less than a well thought out, practiced and entrenched commitment. Something that becomes the essence of your being!

This project is in the works for three full years now. My belief in it and why I do it is clear. My desire to be where I see myself in years to come with this project is vivid. My interest in being successful at this is as high or higher than my interest in any of my previous successes. But just last week I was planning on launching my social media intro video and I got sick. The plan was for Wednesday the 27th, I wasn’t prepared. Getting sick just slowed me down and caused me to loose focus and not work on getting prepared. Too many things were pressing upon me at the same time and now I’m sick.

While laying on the couch on the 28th, as miserable as I have ever been, mind you I’m never sick. Last time I was sick was covid at Christmas 2019 before they were telling anyone. Historically I’m sick once every five years or so where I work until I’m too sick to sit at my desk then sprawl on the couch the rest of the day. Usually I get sick from working too much. In any case, I’m so bad on the 28th that I go from my bed to my couch. At some point in the morning I say to myself, “you didn’t do your launch yesterday because you weren’t prepared. All that other work you did, did not prepare you any better. Now, you’re a day late, too many dollars short to count and sick on the couch. Are you going to do this or what?”. Enter Hernando Cortes…..

Hernando Cortes de Monroy y Pizarro Altamirano was born in December of 1485 in Castile, Spain. In 1519 he was residing in Cuba with his sights set on the mainland, present day Mexico. This man was committed! There was an expedition being planned to the Yucatan. He was made Captain of the expedition. He then organized the entire crew of hundreds of men and ships in a month, but before he left, a message came that the expedition was being recalled by the Governor, jealous of his feat to raise the expedition. He ignored it!! He sailed in February and by July had conquered several coastal cities including Veracruz. Upon victory here he dismissed the Governor of Cuba as his authority and placed himself directly under King Charles of Spain. Then, so that there were no wrong ideas, misgivings or thoughts of anything but GOING FORWARD, Cortes BURNS his entire fleet of ships, all eleven, to reinforce the conviction to set up house!

Show me that kind of commitment and I will show you a successful man! Imagine the gall to override the authority of a man given to him by the king, oft times a cause of death. Imagine thinking that the King is going to talk to you now because of who you just became. Imagine the the audacity to burn ships big enough to hold fifty men and a couple of horses, eleven even. These are the types of people commitments this country needs starting businesses. People with passion, interest, desires, discipline, will power and drive.

So, I played this mind dance game on my couch until I noticed that it would be getting too dark to do anything. This was going to become just another day. No! Dammit! It isn’t! I got off of my couch at 4:30, grabbed my tripod, stool and phone. Set it all up in my yard with a nice back drop. Then went and rewrote the script, put on my best outfit, combed my hair and took a dozen takes. NO I DIDN’T! I could hardly get all that stuff together I was so bad off. I put on a 30 year old button up shirt (because it was handy) over my sweats, sat down on the stool with sick face and hair did it in two takes because the first one was full of gibberish. Then published it how it was. Went inside, took a shower, vommitted and got back on my couch. Burn baby burn! Come on baby light my fire! I see ships blazing in the harbor to stay warm by tonight. Cortes commitment got me off of that couch.

Here’s the best part, not that I have that level of commitment but now that I am on the other side of this grievous ordeal it is so sweet! The boost in my self esteem is monumental. The idea that I can do anything is ever clear and present once again, that feeling is priceless! And most of all, I’ve started, the most difficult and scary part of it all!

I DID IT!

Go get you some of these good vibrations for yourself, make a Cortes commitment right now,

Greg

Now, this is a word with which I really struggle, saying it, but also the idea of it’s value to other people. I’ve never been a quiescent person. On the contrary I’ve been a hit the ground running person. I’ve never believed in wasting one minute getting started. Perhaps you’re the same way, “there’s no time like the present”, “why put off until tomorrow what can be over today”, “a stitch in time, saves nine”, “short as life is, we make it still shorter by the careless waste of time”, and so on…. Most everything I venture into I have great anticipation built up, ready to deploy at a moments notice of the bell. It’s similar to when the gate opens at the horse races. For most of my life, when going into projects, I’ve been standing in the gates waiting for daaaaays or weeeeeks to get started! If you don’t think standing in the gates builds up intense anticipation you’re not my kind of people. That’s OK, cause you don’t need to be, I’m just trying to paint a picture of how it looks to me. Quiescence is definitely not one of my virtues, matter of fact I struggle with the idea of calling it a virtue. On the other hand though, I can be very patient. Like right now I’ve been waiting on a banker for two and a half months. No problem! But when the gate opens….. dammit! It’s time to GO!!!

My son is quite the opposite, there’s very little anticipation in his mind. The gate opens and he’s looking at all of the people in the stands, the jockeys riding off, the commotion around the inside of the track. He has always run his OWN race in his own time. When he’s driving, you get there when he’s good and ready. We will have been waiting for weeks to start a project, not only will he not be ready to run when the gate opens, he’ll still be planning the start. He likes things to unfold before him then decide where to be.

I just can’t!!! I used to be very impatient. I remember this guy from the gas company stopping by after I had reset the gas meter at my house and he was commenting on how it was to low to the ground. I was irritated, “What?” a stupid thing to say. I blew a gasket and started to dig it up to make him happy because he was talking about charging me to fix it. Well I hit the plastic pipe and made it leak. It cost me a bunch more. It’s so far from my understanding of how things should go. Don’t stand there talking stupid to me wasting a life, don’t delay me because you don’t understand. Step back and let the train roll.

Don’t wait! You don’t have the time, live NOW! Now is the time for everything! One minute not getting things done is a minute I’ll never get back and a minute we’ll never be able to do anything with again! I know, one day you’ll be old looking back on all the things you could have done and didn’t, wishing you DID!

Go out right now and DO something for someone, maybe even yourself,

Greg

I mean, I think so? It’s hard to say anymore, you know, I get into things and next thing you know, there I am again saying, “Now that was genius, why did you do that again.” I guess, if you don’t succeed try again. Perhaps you all have had a similar experience recently. I say recent because we all have had it I think, but if it was recent, like it was for me, then you know you’re still doing it! I’m looking back on a real estate deal I’m in the middle of asking myself this question. It’s not a bad deal, it’s not going to end poorly, it should work out to be a pretty good deal. You ask so “what’s the beef.” Well, I don’t want be in the situation of stretching my life, waiting on others, or stressing about who’s not doing what.

My daughter calls me a freight train, slogging my way through life plowing through everything on the track. But now I older, tireder and worn down. So why do I keep getting myself into these good situations? Bad habit! Maybe more than one. For sure it is the habit of looking at an opportunity and saying, “that’ll work” and charging into it headlong and looking up only long enough to make sure the direction is good.

What I’m realizing is that I’m not learning to be old too well. I don’t need to do this, I told myself I don’t want to do it anymore, but then here I am. I realized that the problem is that it has always worked before and who wouldn’t want to do something that works and turns out well? Especially if you can do it in your sleep. Right? It turns out that “having” a requirement to do something for a guy like me turns into the bad habit of doing it just because it “works.”

Having learned this now, I’m going to go off and get into something I have no idea about how it works, if will work out or if it will be any good! I’m going to break my bad habit of doing things that work and go looking for something that doesn’t! I’ve always like looking for new things. So, here’s to things that don’t work and learning how to do them!

Be GREAT to someone you know,

Greg

I try not to be a conspiracy theorist, I try not to think that there are groups of people out there systematically attempting to take over the world through manipulation and subversion; but then I think, how stupid of me to think it isn’t so. I mean, Alexander try as he may to take over the world only had limited influence and resources, Temujin the Great Kahn of the Mongols was hell bent on that same glory, he’s quite famous for it. We don’t have to look too far back to see that there are any number of narcissistic individuals in this category. Hitler, Mussolini and Hirohito; emperor of Japan who by imperial decree proliferated bacteriological and biological weapons.

What limited these people in their abilities to succeed? I would say, influence and resources. They could only get so many people to help them with their plan and the human resources could only go so far. It is also clear to see how the majority was willing to accept and allow it to be. Had they succeeded with their evil plan, eventually one would have devoured the others. Evil always does, then itself.

Today we have a much different world, a much different people, a much different attitude. People willingly defend the “purple koolaid”. My glimpse of Covid is either one of hysteria or an evil plan, maybe both. It’s hard to know what’s going on in your own town let alone the stories from afar. But here’s was I do see. The CDC lists the cause of deaths for each year. They’re terrible at it by the way, but I won’t get started with that. In any case there were some 300,000 people, not that I wish disrespect to anyone one of the lives now gone but to be specific about the number seems to be difficult data to present. One would think that a quick search of 2020 covid deaths in US would give you an exact number, but sadly no. Why? I can type in population of Pennsylvania and in the search results get the exact number that was tabulated during that self same year??? Seems bizarre to me. I go to the CDC website and information is all over the place, presented in 1,000 different ways. Almost impossible to find contiguous data stream as it has been for so many years. Why?

I don’t know. But when I look at what this country went through for less than one percent of the population I wonder a lot! Sicknesses come, they always have. Do our best is all we can do. We definitely didn’t. I think that there are a few government types who lead on these things and there are 2, 191, 000 followers employed under them. That’s a lot of help with a bad plan and all the plan needs to get anywhere is sound reasonable enough.

One thing I understand about government is that if there is a person who doesn’t want to work too hard they get a government job. Not to say that if you work for the government you don’t work hard, but 90% of you don’t! It’s to say that the least applied workers are in government and there is toooo many of them. I think Covid proved that they could do less, get paid more and get more of their kind to come and be a part of it. I think this is what we are seeing here and that the rest of us can get along without most them at work!

Our government is full of those that want more for doing less, when they already out earn their fellow Americans by on average approximately 30 percent, then when you include holiday pay and benefits the percentage goes skyrocketing. If you think this group isn’t trying to take over our lives consider this, why would anyone who has it better than the rest give up a really nice life, especially if they are not too concerned about their countrymen. Just like Hitler’s generals, they will go along for their own benefits. Not to say our government employees are Nazis, heavens no, but that human nature is for self. That’s why I believe our founding fathers are rare individuals.

To sum up my treatise, looking at our government they are not colluding but sure are cooperating and more importantly are mostly not necessary! Looking at others I see a stark contrast between the likes of Elon Musk and Bill Gates or George Soros types. I do believe we have modern day Hirohitos. I do believe that there are Hitler types who are attempting and planning wars on humanity. There always has been how could in not be now. The question isn’t are there conspiracy theories but who are the conspirators? We know they exist because they always have! And we never realize them until it’s late.

Don’t be discouraged! Good people make for great living!!!

Be good, live great and love a neighbor,

Greg

You damn right!!! The world is what it is because of US! Pun intended. If America is not special then why do people throng to be here? They have a chance to live in Mexico before they come here. I’ve been there many a time and most people there live much as we do here, they’re a little bit freer than most of us, but still a nice place to live. Why go straight past all of the Americans retiring there to come here???

I have a theory…. the big tit. People the world over want to come here for an easy life, we’re famous for it. When thousands of Americans are taking their fortunes and going to beaches all over the world to get out of here or have a better life with what money they have the world is striving to get in here. Why not? You live in some other country and next thing you know a bunch of Americans start showing up throwing money at your life and you say, “what is this, who does such things”? Over the past 20 years it’s taken place all over the globe, told millions of people that this is what they want.

The main problem I see with this is that it’s not free, nor is it easy. Especially now with all of the burden our parents left us. Debt. Very little wealth creation, only money expansion. Too many old people hoarding everything, time, money, knowledge, help. Americans are so wealthy that the poorest of our people, the mentally unstable homeless person living on the streets of San Francisco has more the most anybody in the world. Don’t believe me go and take a look at what the different heads of state get paid a year. The average American makes more each year than at least 25 of the world’s LEADERS! As the average American you make too much to run a country, and you’re not 1 in a million like him, you’re 1 of millions. If you don’t think that makes you special, I don’t know what will. Special means set apart or different. That description above surely relates that to me. The problem, I think is that when you’re 1 of millions, it’s hard to see but mark my words, they’re coming here in droves because you are famous! and special!

This country is famous for a lot of things, let me make few observations. If the US was like any other country in the world the that has ever existed the world would look completely different. Instead of the EU (European Union) it would be the EU of A. Germany would be a US territory, Italy would be a US state, Japan would be a US state, all of the Pacific Islands would be US states, Spain would be a US state along with Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, Croatia, Yugoslavia, Denmark, Finland, Manchuria, Burma, Thailand, Iraq, Albania, Serbia, Cambodia, Philippines, Laos, Vietnam and parts of the countries of France, Mongolia and Greece. “To the victor go the spoils” was the world mantra until the US arrived upon the scene and became the dominant force. Not only did we conquer nations and give them back, we paid for their reparations! Tell me that doesn’t make one famous or special.

We’ve always until recently made the best things. This certainly make one famous and special. Why else would anyone pay that kind of money for shoes? Not only did we make the best things but the most of them! Now for those of you that would argue that Germans or Japanese have always made the best cars, I say this, “which is better 10 thousand or 10 million?” Before other makers made cars here, no one could do what the Big 4 did here. If you would have tried to expand the German auto manufacturing to accommodate, the entire country would be at work making cars and still fall short. This would be like saying that every single person in Michigan works at making cars. Ok, easy enough to imagine but only because everybody in WV is digging coal, everybody in Utah digging ore, everybody in PA making steel. Get the picture, if I make a few, I need it to be so fine that only the elite can have it. Then only the elite have it, no one else cares. When I make a million of them they need to highly functional but not so special. We’re famous for functional and that is special.

We used to be famous for getting shit done!!! We did more than anyone in the world until recently. Problem is today we don’t really do anything worth a shit anymore. Of the top 25 companies on the Fortune 500 today only 7 actually make stuff and most of them don’t make it here! Three are petrol companies this is good because the world runs on corn and diesel. Two are auto manufacturers, that’s good because there’s something of tangible value. I’ll give AT&T and Kroger a pass because they add value to all the thins we do. But the rest are pharma or pharma support (insurance, etc.) nothing tangible made here. If all of the illegal drugs that they use to make their products was to made legal they would all crumble in a few days. If Ford or GM sells me a car, regardless of what happens I have something of value. This is wealth, this is what we’re famous for and it makes us all special.

These are just a few examples of why America and it’s American’s are special!! Choose to live up to the reputation, go out and be special, make and collect wealth so you too can retire on a beach in some foreign country and make us even more famous!!

Have a great day,

Greg

Good morning people! I wish you well today! Fear mongers. Here is something at which I think we should look hard. As American’s we tend to look at other’s with an altruistic view. That most people are good and decent enough. Those who would do bad things are the few or the exception.

Over the years certain people have discovered that fear is the second most powerful motivator and a much more easily provoke reaction. You don’t find people trampling their neighbors at a football stadium because of love. When people become afraid they’ll conduct all sorts of mayhem en masse. I think for those of us who are even slightly awake we came to realize through the Covid episode that there were those who used that event for not so good purposes. Some of them becoming outright dictators, like the governor who closed half of Walmart stores. “you can go to Walmart because you need things but I’ve determined that you don’t need ‘those’ things.”

Let me define what fear mongering means in the sense I am discussing. The intentional use by an individual of their position to broadcast widespread fears in order to have more control or get a more advantageous position over other people. I believe what I have discovered are those would be tyrants, like the governor I mentioned above are also the people who do the fear mongering the most. Perhaps you thought that those measures were reasonable. I have to say, “come on man”, if you walk through the mud puddle behind me you know your shoes have the same mud. And so, it would seem, that those people now seek the highest positions of political office.

It used to be that someone would get elected and doing something like that only lasted about four years. I believe that is because love was the leading force in most American decisions and they would get voted out. American’s loved their freedoms and their neighbors. Well most of them. 🙂 All kidding aside, now we seem to have taken to the “us and them” mentality on most all things. It seems more popular than not, that being an American is not so special. You’re either a Democrat (sympathizer) or a Republican (sympathizer) and the line is drawn for combat and much more grievous than Monday night football.

When I hear Mr. Biden say things like, “there’s nothing special about being an American” he’s drawing a line like so many others who would divide us. Maybe he’s the American that’s not so special. But I’ll tell you what I understand, America brought the world out of poverty, America save the world twice from oppressors, America is still the place where people risk their lives to get into. Most places in the world people risk their lives to leave a place, here we have to exceptional country at our borders and the only way for people to get here is through a nice country. Don’t believe Mexico is a nice country, go there, look at all of the Americans retiring there. People risk their lives to come here because we are STILL special.

Drawing these lines is a most subtle form of fear mongering. It sets up an idea that is at odds with what you have always seen and heard. This then leads to a person thinking that in other places people live quite the same and we are no different than they are or that Canada has better healthcare, or Europe makes better cars. These subtle cues cause small decisions to be made which lead to picking a side in the battle. Then the mongering starts.

I think a lot of people witnessed this during Covid. The story didn’t add up and still doesn’t but you can still see the remains of the “sides” chosen and the readiness to choose that again when the time comes. I think that most reasonable people who did notice this going on, had a wake up call and are now wiser to it. I believe this will gradually begin the change we do desperately need. Going back to who we have always been, the people who made the world what it is by being the best at everything. We saved the world at least three time now, let’s do it again! Let me go back to an era of American greatness and point out a few things that came from that time. “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself”, a man gearing up a nation to do great things. “When your numbers up, your number up”, a reference to getting a number in a local shop when the line is too long, this metaphor people related to dying as it was totally inexplicable. Millions of people engaged in a war and some died, most didn’t, there was no logical reasoning that could explain who did and who didn’t. It was a time to be brave, overcome your fears and do your best!

Please choose whom you follow carefully, choose men like FDR (quoted above) or better yet George Washington (quoted below). Stop fearing and fighting each other and go be the best person you know how to be and do your best everyday and we’ll all be special again!

“Be Americans. Let there be no sectionalism, no North, South, East or West. You are all dependent on one another and should be one in union. In one work, be a nation. Be Americans, and be true to yourselves.”

Have a great day!

Greg